DIY Tabletop Fountains!

Fountains are an interesting element which brings a very calming and a soothing feel to anyone’s mind. Wherever you add this feature, whether it is in your patio, in your living room or in your garden, this fountain will be the most appreciated item in your home. That too, when you make your own water feature or a fountain, carrying your personal touch, then it will be an instant conversational item among the many things you own. Who wouldn’t love the sound of water gushing, splashing and babbling through small pebbles and rocks like a small stream? … Definitely, it is the place where I spend the most of my free time when I’m at home.

For today’s post, I’m going to show you how you can make your own fountain or a water feature using very simple materials.

Let’s have a look at what I’m going to make today!

Tabletop Fountains:

Bird Bath Fountain:

Patio/ Fountain:

Very interesting right? As you can see, all these fountains are made from very simple, yet readily available materials in and around your home (except for the pump!). For making a fountain, you need to have two main things i.e. one is the Fountain Pump and the other is the base to hold the entire fountain setup.

I did a small research on the pumps before I started making a fountain and found out that approximately 60 or 90 GPH (Gallons per Hour) is sufficient for making smaller sized fountains.

I searched very hard to get a pump with this lower GPH in several Aquariums and in few hardware shops in and around my place, but I was not very successful until I found a bigger sized pump(thanks to my friend for bringing my week long pump search to an end!). My pump measures 750 LPH (Liters per Hour) which is equivalent to 198.15 GPH which is a lot more than what I wished for! Anyway, having a bigger pump is not as bad as not having a one; Only thing, I needed to control and bring the heavy flow of water to some extent by placing stones to block the gushing water at the right places. It took me little more than expected effort and time to complete the fountain. That’s okay I guess!

Materials needed:

1. Fountain pump or Aquarium pump or submersible pump.

2. Fountain base or basin or pot or bird bath – Any ceramic pot, concrete or cement pot, porcelain base or pot. You choose your base according to your needs. For my fountains, I’ve chosen one concrete and one plastic base.

3. Stones, rocks or pebbles or marbles – Make a few trips to your garden or backyard, try to find anything from rocks to stones or figurines.

4. Plastic tubing to give the fountain its height and flexibility.

5. Few pottery items to give some character to these fountains. You can use anything to suit your needs and liking.

Instructions:

1. Place the pump on the base with it’s suction base to touch the bottom of the base evenly. Cut a desired length of tubing and insert this on to the nozzle of the pump like in the picture below.

2. Then cover this pump with a pottery or anything with a hole on top to bring the tubing outside and few other holes to drive the water inside the pump.

3. Arrange the bigger stones and rocks around this pump setup.

4. Now place a small earthen pot with a hole on one of it’s side and place it on top of the pump setup at an angle just like in the figure. Adjust the tubing inside the pot and put some pebbles in it to control the water flow. Add a few stones at the back of this pot if needed to hold this pot in one position!

Keep adding more smaller stones above the first layer of bigger stones until you are completely satisfied with your setup. Add statues or any accessories to give a personal touch to your fountain!

5. Now pour water into this fountain setup. Make sure the place surrounding the fountain and your hands are dry, plug in the pump onto the nearest electrical socket and turn it on. Now comes the toughest part. Adjust the water flow to avoid water spilling/splashing from the fountain. Keep trying and rearranging the stones until you get the desired flow and look.